Best of ProBlogger – 2006

2006 was a massive year for me both on a personal level but also on a blogging front.

I became a Dad in July, V and I took a couple of interstate trips, I travelled to Canada, I started a new blog and forum at Digital Photography School, b5media went to a new level after securing investment (and had lots of highs and lows along the way), I met and got t know a lot of great new bloggers… and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Here at ProBlogger it has been another busy year of posting with 1242 new posts going up on the blog (including this one), around 1.6 million visitors and 3.7 million page views (estimates – I lost my stats when changing servers), many thousands of comments, surviving being hacked, starting job boards and more.

Today I spent a few hours surfing through the last year’s archives reflecting upon the year that was. I try to do this type of review on each of my blogs both out of interest but also to analyze what did and didn’t work over the year so that I can improve for future years.

I looked at a lot of stats today but also made a list of blog posts that were successful (both on a comments/discussion level and on a traffic level). Here is a summary of the year that was with a short description of the month as well as a list of the most commented upon posts and other posts that did well in terms of traffic (or that I was proud of).

I hope you enjoy this trip back through the year of 2006 at ProBlogger.

Warning – Be warned there are a lot of links to follow (143) and it might just take you a good part of the next year to read them all – however for newer readers it might prove a useful way to catch up on what we’ve been up to.

January

122 Posts – The start of the year was a touch slow last year as I took a week off over the New Year break and left the blog with a few advance posts and some great guest posters but by mid January things were kicking along again with a little controversy to get things going.

144 posts – This month was where I ran the Blogging for Beginners series of posts. It was one of the most exciting months of blogging I’ve had as I got back to basics. Traffic went up, reader interaction was great and the posts in the series remain some of the most popular posts on the blog to this day.

126 Posts – March saw the continuation of the Blogging for Beginners Series which ended up being ALOT longer than I first thought it would. I remember feeling pretty exhausted at the end of the series – it took a great deal of work.

86 Posts – In April V and I took our last break before our baby came along and over the two week break I posted a series of 16 case studies which were submitted by readers telling the stories of their blogs. I also had some cool guest bloggers again but the overall posting rate was down slightly. We did have a great break though! I also finished this month off with a series of posts on Building Blogger Credibility.

116 Posts – June was a quiet-ish month as many of my northern hemisphere readers started to do Summery things and as the time got close for our new baby. I ran another group writing project on Blogging Goals and a couple of mini-series of posts.

83 Posts – Our son, Xavier, arrived in July and I took a fair portion of the month off as paternity leave. The theme of the blog for this month was ‘If I had to start my blog again’ which was both the theme of the month’s group writing project but also also a ‘one question interview‘ series that I ran where I asked a number of bloggers what they’d do differently if they had to start their blogs again.

84 Posts – September saw the most successful group writing project on the topic of ‘How To’. It had great prizes and attracted hundreds of participants. I also ran a bit of a fund raiser in September in my Blogging for Chickens fundraiser (we raised over $1000). Also popular this month was a mini series on Linkbaiting.

72 Posts – In October I took a break from group writing projects and we got down to some basics of blogging again. Ironically the most commented upon post of the year was in this month about – how to get comments on your blog.

102 Posts – November was an exciting month for me as it brought along a 10 day trip to Toronto to meet some some of the b5media team. While I was gone I ran a fun series of guest posts from readers with their ‘quick tips‘. This month I also posted a 13 post series on How to Optimize Your Blog for Christmas.

All in all it was a fairly busy but very satisfying year of blogging here at ProBlogger. Thanks to the many thousands of readers who have contributed either with guest posts, comments, emails and tip offs. I’m looking forward to yet another great year in 2007.

Have a great night tonight for those of you who are celebrating the coming of the new year and I’ll see you ‘on the other side’.

This “4 year” thing is good to know. I can invest that kind of time. All the “keyword” marketing hype gives the impression that it does happen overnight, and happens big. If it doesn’t, it’s because your keywords are all wrong. What your saying is that success comes from time, good content, learning and patience — not in keyword chases.

2006 was not a particularly good year for me – I was all over the place, yet accomplished very little. I’m hoping to focus my efforts more this year, so I see better results. I remain an eternal optimist, and look forward to more interactions here!

Wishing you a very happy new year. Hope 2007 is a wonderful year for you.

I’ve been following your blog since late August and absolutely love it. Your advice is very practical and helpful. Especially the ‘Blogging for Beginners’ series has been very insightful. Thanks a million for all the advice on Problogger.

[…] your archives for a second look. I tend to do this on special occasions (blog anniversaries, the end of the year etc). It is a gentle way of reminding new readers that there is more to your blog than what they […]